Good Morning from Tokyo!

Good morning from Tokyo! I enjoyed our last day in Fuzhou a lot. In the early morning we went to the village market (finally). That was really quite an experience. There was booth after booth of people selling fruits and veggies, live fish, clams, breakfast buns, pearls and much more. I took a pretty good video while I was walking through. We went to our little breakfast joint with Malia and got Bon Mien and dumplings for the last time. I went to the main house to be with the kids for a while after that and helped get them to school. I said goodbye to them, which was hard but not unbearable. They're in great hands. I can't even explain how unbelievably amazing that place is. My precious little 4 year old with downs was definitely the hardest to say goodbye to. I have big prayers for that girl. I really hope she finds a family soon. She just is so sweet and cuddly. Malia promised to send me picture updates of the kiddos.

I finished up my bunny in the workshop and Debbie finished up her quilt. We said goodbye to Malia, Shi Yu and little Jaden too. Kyler took us to a shuttle bus and we rode through Fuzhou to get to the airport. We were all 4 very comfy in our spread our seats until the one stop before the airport.

Apparently there are assigned seats on a shuttle bus. We were scolded and made to move by the other people getting on the bus. I moved from my nice 2 seats to my self to next to guy who smelled like he'd never heard of deodorant in his life 🤢. The lady next to Debbie even made her put her seat belt on.

At the Fuzhou airport, our flight was promptly delayed an hour. We had a scare with thinking our flight was going to be delayed another 4 hours, which would have threw off our entire trip! Luckily it wasn't actually our flight! We flew from Fuzhou to Hong Kong from 9:30pm-12:00. Our flight from Hong Kong to Tokyo boarded at 1:00am. It was already going to be a tight fit, but then we had to park the plane "remotely" so we climbed down stairs out of the plane and boarded shuttle busses that took us to the airport. We had to go through bag checks AGAIN. Luckily there was a lady waiting for us to show us to our flight! We ran through the massive Hong Kong airport and made it on the flight just barely! That flight was from 1am to 5:30am (with an extra hour in there for time change) making it 6:30am when we arrived in Tokyo. I think we all slept pretty well through the majority of the flight. I figured out that if I take my backpack and put it on my lap, it makes a great pillow. When we landed in Tokyo, dazed and half awake, we found our gate and planted our baggage in our spot. Debbie stayed with the stuff while us other 3 did a little shopping. Shyla had a hay day with all the Studio Ghibli stuff! We also had a few interesting snacks here in the airport. I can tell we're getting closer to the states because we're finally getting less gaping stares and pictures taken. We were joking about how many hundreds of Chinese people have our picture on their phones. It's seriously unreal. Everywhere we went we got anything from a stare, to a laugh and point, or people running to take pictures with us, people thinking they're being sneaky taking pictures, then others who just blatantly point and stare and openly take pictures. It was funny at first but it really got old after a while. A few times people would stop and stare on the street and follow us with their eyes and when they took a picture I would stick my tongue out. They never really reacted lol. Our next flight leaves at 10:30, so in just about an hour. This flight will be 10 hours from Tokyo to Dallas, then a few hours from Dallas to Springfield. I'm planning on sleeping as much as possible on this flight! Next post will hopefully be from Springfield!!

There plane didn't leave until 11:58 and they will arrive in Dallas at 9:27 am. It's 11:45 pm here and they have about 10 hours left on the flight.

Sayonara Tokyo!

More Pictures for last post

Here are some more pictures that were supposed to go along with the last post. 

The Last Night in Fuzhou

These are from our breakfast joint in the village. We always order noodles called "bon mien" and amazing dumplings! It cost ¥3 for the noodles and ¥3 for the dumplings. That's $.89! It's so delicious and filling.

Here's some sewing pictures from "Hands of Hope". Alice is holding up her quilt they made (with Julia standing in front). Debbie with her quilt. There's some of Lynn and her work. And even one of Ross working on the bib he made. He was so excited to learn how to sew! Then a couple of Alice and I working on the bunnies.

A few group photos from our time in Fuzhou. The first one is of us walking through the village. 2nd is in front of the massive fabric market. Third is of the couple that lives in and runs the guest house. 4th is Debbie and Ross with Debbie's Kum & Go cup from before we left the states 😂 5th is us shopping the fresh produce in the market.

Just a few random pics from Fuzhou. The backhoe that sounded like it was bulldozing the buildings down! And one of the little boys that lives in the village with his mom.

Debbie has done a little project during this trip. Instead of having a where's waldo or flat Stanley, she has the Kum and Go cup with Gene (her dad) written on the side. She's taken pictures with it all over the world! Mostly she took pictures in the village today 😂 That cup has all the places we've been written on the side. I told her she should have brought a 417 magazine! Here's some silly pictures for you to enjoy of the world traveling Kum and Go cup!

I'm writing from our last night in Fuzhou. 😭I'm so sad to leave tomorrow. It has been such an amazing experience, more than I can fit into words. As the others and I were going through our luggage and repacking today, we were reminiscing about the trip. We talked about how great we all got along, especially with me not really knowing them. We joked about what a huge risk it was to take a trip with people you don't know! Now, even though I've only known them for a couple weeks, it feels like a lifetime.

We spent the majority of today resting and getting our things in order and getting ready to make the trek back to the states. Before we went through everything we had bought (we did more shopping in Fuzhou than planned) we decided we needed another suitcase to be able to get everything home! We spent a lot of time today wandering around the village going to different stores to buy various needed (and not needed) last minute things.There's basically 3 stores in the village. 1 is the smallest and most convenient. 2 is a little further, newest, but a little more expensive, and 3 is the furthest, cheapest, with the biggest variety. We set out in search of the temple to see in the daylight. We took a few wrong turns but eventually found it. I was sure I was going to melt before we found it. I'm not sure what the temperature was today but I know it was well above 100 with the humidity crazy high. The temple was beautiful and I got lots of pictures. It was interesting to see all the candles and burnings. I pictured a closed building but it was all open and airy. Kyler told us yesterday that it wasn't a Buddhist temple but I can't remember what it is. It reminds me and Shyla of Mulan.

We stopped at store 3 first on our way back, where we bought water and the best popsicles ever. At store 2 we went in, intending to buy another umbrella. I think by the time we got to the register we had, 5 fans, 2 umbrellas, 4 packs of stickers, 4 pairs of shoes, 2 thermoses, some other junk, and a suitcase. The guy (and at least 5 other "workers") rung us up at over ¥500! Since it was our last day in China, we had very little money left. After counting out exactly how much money we had and re adding up our expenses, we ended up leaving the thermoses behind. We went back to our house with the new suitcase and reorganized our stuff. Now last time my family and I were in China, we bought a suitcase to bring stuff we had bought here in, and that thing barely made it home. It was missing wheels, covered in duct tape, missing a handle and possibly more. It did it's job then went right into the trash. This suitcase seems much sturdier than the last one though. As we went through and organized all of our treasures, we realized we had more space than we thought and didn't actually need the suitcase. So, we took it back to store 2 (where among all the many workers, non spoke English). We should be amazing at playing charades now because we successfully returned the suitcase and exchanged it for 2 thermoses and an umbrella! Now that everything is packed in the same suitcases we brought with us, I think we're pretty close to being ready for the trek home. 

We spent the rest of the evening talking and playing cards. We watched a video on another American run orphanage in Beijing called Shepherds Field (next on my visiting list). Tomorrow we are getting up very early to see the morning market where people bring all their fresh goods and produce to sell. Then we'll meet Malia for breakfast for Bon Mien and dumplings at our little breakfast joint. Then I think I'll go hang out with and say good by to all the kids until nap time. After that I need to finish up the last little bit of my bunny, pay for my purses, and pack up. Then it'll be time to head to the airport. 

Goodnight from Fuzhou for the last time